Monday, November 18, 2013

His
wings are bluish-green, glistening in the sunlight. They have a black band in the
middle. His abdomen is yellow. He is 20 cm in length, flying free in the
rainforest canopies of New Guinea. He is the Queen Alexandra’s Wingspan, the
largest butterfly on the planet. He is so beautiful that some are willing to
pay US$10,000 for his wings[1].
And what do they do with them? Put them in a box, together with other wings of
beautiful butterflies that come from all over the world to build up an
eccentric collection of dead butterflies. My stomach turns at the thought, butterflies
behind glass: beauty seen, beauty not felt … lifeless.[2]

For
years, people all over the world have traded wildlife illegally. Their purpose
is to meet consumer demands for trophies, exotic foods, decoration, traditional
medicines and collections.[3] Wildlife
trade is a multi-billion dollar industry that threatens biodiversity and
triggers ecological problems. For instance, one ecological consequence of
wildlife trade is the cascading ecosystem-level effects of removing species[4]. Poaching
tigers for their coats, for example, might drive them to extinction. Thus, if
tigers become extinct, food chains will likely be severely altered because of
the removal of a top predator. Wildlife trade also introduces invasive species.
As an example, ornamental fish have been traded to meet the demands of aquarium
hobbyists, but in some cases not all the fish in the market are sold. Many
sellers release these unsold fish into aquatic habitats where they can
potentially threaten the persistence of native species by outcompeting them[5].

Why
is the story of butterflies an important example of wildlife trading? Illegal
trade of butterflies has more demand than one might imagine, and it is linked
to ecological problems such as the loss of pollination as well as social
problems like drug trafficking and violence.

People
often believe that collectors—particularly those collecting eccentric things,
like butterflies—are few in number and spend lots of money maintaining their
hobbies. But in fact there are many collectors from the United States, Germany,
and Japan (where an estimated 1 in 10 males are serious collectors) interested
in buying rare butterflies [6]. In
her recent book ‘Winged obsession’, Jessica
Speart showed that ‘illegal trafficking of butterflies brings around US$200
million a year to global economy’1. Moreover, harvesting and
exploitation of butterflies has increased because they are now trendy and ‘used in greeting cards, paper weights and
even jewelry’[7].
The illegal trade involves not just few butterflies, but many thousands!

So… What
ecological and social problems are linked to the trade of butterflies? Among
insects they are the second-most important pollinators globally[8]. Butterflies
pollinate large, showy flowers, pink or purple in color and usually scented,
such as hydrangeas or lilacs[9]. Thus,
killing and trafficking them can lead to the loss of pollination as an ecosystem
service in flower crops[10]. Butterflies
are also at the base of food chains; a reduction of their populations would impact
the populations of species that prey upon them, such as birds or bats. Moreover,
each species of butterfly uses a specific plant or a group of plants for egg
laying and larval development; therefore butterflies’ extinction can trigger a
coextinction process between them and their host plants[11].

In
addition to potential ecological and economic problems from butterflies’ removal,
more complex social dynamics involving illegal activities arise from butterfly
and wildlife trade. As a matter of fact, the primary actors involved in these
activities are criminal syndicates, insurgency groups and terrorist groups4,[12].
In Latin America for example, there is evidence that the routes employed for
trafficking drugs are the same as those employed for illicit wildlife and
operated by the same criminal bands4. Thus, trafficking butterflies
(as an example) may often be linked to violence, corruption and highly
organized criminal groups (like the Medellin drug cartel in Colombia or the
Italian Mafia)4. Thus, if someone buys a butterfly for a collection,
they may be contributing to financing criminal bands that commit terrorist
acts.

I
know that this topic seems overly dramatic. Connecting butterflies trade with criminal
violence? You may think this is too extreme. But the truth is, environmental
problems are intertwined with social problems in one way or another. To finish,
I want to share with you my ideas about how to deal with this problem:

Raise awareness. Did you know the prevalence and
significance of the butterfly trade before? Go tell your friends!

Stop buying butterfly cards, bracelets,
earrings, etc., and speak out whenever you see or hear about it. We as
consumers have the power to shape the market and reduce the pressures leading
to illegal butterfly trade.

Work to prohibit rare butterfly collections,
perhaps by sending letters to politicians or starting campaigns. In that way we
can better prevent extinction of certain species-at-risk.

These
are some I can come up with, but what do you think we should do?

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

This is the question posed by Paul Voosen, senior science writer with the Chronicle for Higher Education, in his piece published online earlier this week that addresses an ongoing discussion in the conservation world. Paul visited the CHANS Lab group this summer while researching this article, and has a follow up blog post that includes some excerpts from his interview with Kai that addresses a couple of neat ideas that were not discussed in great detail in the larger article. Let us know what you think!